Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs): the Indian perspective

1. Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs): the Indian perspective Arabinda Mishra 10 May 2010 Carbon Bazaar 2010, New Delhi

2. The Bali Action Plan, 1b(ii) of Decision 1/CP.13 ‘1. (b) Enhanced national/international action on mitigation of climate change, including, inter alia, consideration of: … (ii) Nationally-appropriate mitigation actions by developing country Parties in the context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, finance and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.’

3. Article 12.4 of the UNFCCC ‘Developing country Parties may, on a voluntary basis, propose projects for financing, including specific technologies, materials, equipment, techniques or practices that would be needed to implement such projects, along with, if possible, an estimate of all incremental costs, of the reductions of emissions and increments of removal of greenhouse gases, as well as an estimate of the consequent benefits.’

4. Key elements of the NAMAs concept • The sustainable development context • ‘nationally appropriate’ • Voluntary mitigation actions by developing countries • ‘Enabling’ support from developed countries – technology, finance and capacity-building • Monitoring, reporting and verification – both ‘actions’ and ‘support’

5. Implementation challenges • Setting the criteria for SD • Defining national appropriateness • Separating unilateral actions from those to be ‘supported’ • Financing issues • Choice of the MRV metrics • Preventing ‘leakages’ • Interaction with CDM, REDD+, and other climate instruments

6. Financing NAMAs: key issues • Disentangling climate finance from development finance: the problem of overlap • Choosing between public funding and market instruments within climate finance: setting the right criteria • Incentives for leveraging private investment • NAMAs and CDM: the double-counting potential and likely conflicts (e.g. policy actions affecting CDM baselines)

7. India’s position on NAMAs and related issues (1) • Voluntary, legally non-binding, and guided by over-riding development priorities without a ‘peaking year’ for emissions • Enhanced actions conditional on availability of matching support from developed countries • International MRV of directly supported actions only; applies to support as well • National Communications to report and International Registry to track

8. India’s position…(2) • Provisions for “international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines that will ensure that national sovereignty is respected” • Guidelines to be decided by CoP through SBI • No sectoral norms at international level that may impinge on voluntary mitigation actions by developing countries

9. India’s position… (3) • Emphasis on public funds for meeting long-term mitigation needs • Assessed contributions from developed countries and multi-lateral financial mechanism under the UNFCCC • Kyoto mechanisms for deepening and expansion of carbon markets • Multilateral mechanism for technology transfer, accelerated adoption, capacity-building, and support networks

10. State of play on NAMAs after Copenhagen • Political understanding expected to facilitate negotiations on NAMAs under the LCA track – but so far no significant progress • Negotiations still vague on implementation issues • Uncertainty over Kyoto commitments and instruments • Caution over market mechanisms, in general • going to have a bearing on the dynamics of carbon markets?

11. The opportunity for India • Using NAMAs to be ‘bold’ on negotiations • Leverage resources to tackle the challenge of Low Carbon Transformation • This requires well-developed national strategies • Positive incentives for private investment • Focus should be on R&D and deployment of advanced technology • Foresight on developments in the carbon and its related markets is going to be crucial • Credited NAMAs at some stage?

12. Thank you